Citywide food drive to benefit Laguna Food Pantry begins next week

In observance of National Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week November 1-7, residents of Laguna Beach are asked to contribute nonperishable food items to help their neighbors in need – and giving couldn’t be easier. For three weeks, beginning on Tuesday, October 22, a designated team in a flatbed truck from Waste Management will gather food items placed curbside on residents’ regular trash pickup days.

The citywide Food Drive will benefit the Laguna Food Pantry, which provides free groceries to low-income families in and around Laguna Beach. The Pantry also offers free breakfast and lunch food for the 50 nightly clients of the neighboring Alternative Sleeping Location (ASL). The ASL is managed by Friendship Shelter with support from the City of Laguna Beach.

The collection effort begins on Tuesday, October 22 and ends Friday, November 8. Waste Management drivers will place flyers on trash carts with this information.

Residents may mark their donation as “food,” or tape the flyer on the donation box or paper bag (no banned plastic bags, please). Most-requested items include breakfast cereal, pasta, pasta sauce, canned tuna, peanut butter, and jelly. Residents may donate on each pickup date for the three weeks of the drive.

All donations will be taken to the Laguna Food Pantry, located at 20652 Laguna Canyon Road, next to the ASL.

“We are delighted to be selected by the City of Laguna Beach as the beneficiary of this major effort,” said Andy Siegenfeld, director of the Laguna Food Pantry. “Waste Management has always been good to us, but this fourth year in a row, they have stepped it up by expanding the food drive. It had been limited to a few specific neighborhoods, but with a citywide effort covering every resident who has trash pickup service, our volunteers are gearing up to take in as much as 25 tons of nonperishable food items that will feed hungry families.”

Elmer Heap, public sector manager for Waste Management of Orange County “Waste Management of Orange County is honored to support this very important cause and invites residents to take part,” noted, “We are pleased to join the City of Laguna Beach Housing and Human Services Committee to help meet the needs of the community by collecting needed food for those who use the Laguna Food Pantry and the Alternative Sleeping Location.”

The Laguna Food Pantry, formerly the Laguna Resource Center, provides free, fresh, nutritious groceries to low-income households. Families are invited to shop in the Pantry’s friendly, retail-like setting once a week. Located at 20652 Laguna Canyon Road near the Dog Park, the Pantry is open from 8 to 10:30 a.m. Monday through Friday. It is run entirely by volunteers.

For more information about the food drive, contact Waste Management representative Elmer Heap at eheap@wm.com. Learn more about the Laguna Food Pantry at www.lagunafoodpantry.org Phone: 949-497-7121.